Two Months

Baby Bro

Clay is once again successful in calming Floyd down.

——

Clay allowed Floyd to let it all out before he even thought about asking him what was wrong. It took a while, but ten minutes later, Floyd was finally beginning to calm down, and Clay felt comfortable enough to ask his little brother what had him so upset.

"Are you guys mad at me?" Floyd asked as a way of answering the question.

Well, Clay hadn't been expecting that. He took a second to gather his thoughts and think about what he should say next. "No, why would be mad?"

"Because you all seemed mad that I kept the pain to myself until it got to be too much," was the whispered reply he got as Floyd curled up into an even tighter ball than he was already in. He looked so much smaller when he did that, and it broke Clay's heart that knowing that the other troll was hurting at the moment and he wasn't able to stop it.

"Oh, Floyd," he said softly. "We're not mad at you because of that. We're just worried about you, is all. You've been though a lot recently, and even though none of us have seen each other in decades, we're still brothers. We still care for and love each other so much."

Floyd let Clay's words sink in. It was weird hearing him be so serious about anything, but it was also kind of nice. To him it helped solidify the fact that Clay really did still care about him after all this time.

"Baby bro, don't cry."

Don't cry? What did Clay mean by that? Reaching his hand up to his face, Floyd felt a few tears streaking down his cheeks. Apparently he had begun to cry again at his brother's words and — wait a minute.

Baby bro?

That was something Clay, and only Clay, would call him when they were still little. Before Branch was even in the picture and Floyd was the baby of the family. He had completely forgotten about the nickname that Clay used for him whenever he was having a bad day and needed some extra comfort.

Turns out that Clay did have a more serious side to him when they were small. It just didn't show up enough for him to remember well.

Floyd was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a hand slightly nudge him, probably due to the lack of any sort of response or reaction to Clay's words. "Are you okay there?" he heard Clay say.

Feeling the need to respond, Floyd just mumbled a simple "I don't know," before going silent again. His older brother simply hummed before pulling them closer together.

"Well, I'm here if you need me. We're all right here. You know that right?" All Floyd could do was lightly nod. He didn't have the energy to really do anything else, and as much as he wanted to talk to Clay, that could wait a bit longer. Right now, he was content with being hugged after so long with no positive physical contact from anyone at all.

Maybe he wouldn't be okay just yet, but he'd be okay soon thanks to his brothers.

Now all that was left was to tell them all what exactly happened because he felt as though the last 'explanation' he gave was quite vague, and they deserved to know what was going on in their brother's head.

But again, that could be put off for a bit longer. Right now, a nap sounded like a pretty good idea.